In recent years, the component supply apparatus for supplying electronic components to an electronic component mounting apparatus which mounts the electronic components onto a printed board has had the practices of diversification in the amount of mounted component supply cassettes and division of its supply table in order to cope with the requirements for multi-sort small-quantity production and an increase in the operating rate.
Conventionally, this kind of component supply apparatus has generally had a construction as disclosed in Examined Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-221326. The construction will be described below with reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6.
As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a first supply table 2 and a second supply table 3 which are able to set a plurality of component supply cassettes 1 are reciprocatingly movably guided by a rail 4. Below these supply tables 2 and 3 is provided a threaded shaft 5 fixed parallel to the rail 4. On the lower surface side of the supply tables 2 and 3 are provided a nut section 6 meshed with the threaded shaft 5 and a hollow motor 7 which rotationally drives the nut section 6 around the threaded shaft 5. The reference numeral 8 denotes a mounting head which attracts by suction a component at the component supply cassette 1 and transfers and mounts it onto a board 10 positioned by an X-Y table 9.
When a pair of component supply cassettes 1 of identical electronic components are set at the supply tables 2 and 3 in the aforementioned construction and when a depletion of components occurs in one supply table, the table is switched to the other supply table for alternative use, thereby allowing the component supply cassette 1 in which the depletion of components occurs to be supplied with components in the meantime.
When there are many sorts of the components to be used, it can be performed to set component supply cassettes 1 of electronic components of different sorts at the supply tables 2 and 3 and supply the components to the mounting head 8 through successive switching between the supply tables 2 and 3.
However, since the constituent elements of the rail 4, threaded shaft 5 and so on are arranged on one base in the aforementioned prior art, various kinds of component supply apparatuses are required to be prepared depending on the amount, installation space condition and so on of necessary component supply cassettes 1. Furthermore, it is difficult to flexibly change the number of component supply cassettes and the number of supply tables depending on a change in the production state and the like.
The present invention has an object to provide a component supply apparatus capable of freely using a plurality of component supply units by connecting them.